New link to story.

AARF has posted "The Original Highwayman's Self Portrait" on their website under "editorials". If you click on this link, that is where you should go.

http://aarf.com/editorial/bleblanc0808/bobleblancs08.htm

Now you don't have to go find the little magazine someplace. The feedback I've received on the story is very gratifying, thanks for the kind words. I did actually work my ass off on it, must have re-written and fiddled with it twenty five or thirty times. Thinking back on that, it intimidates me a little to start the next one. It seems to be hard enough just to keep up with this blog. It's easy to put off.

While we've been getting rain daily around here, and plenty of it, July can be a very dry month for sales. With no shows scheduled, we did manage to sell a sweet little Backus, an exotic one no less. Dated 1944, when he was in the Navy, he titled it "Bora Bora, near Tahiti." The Captain of his vessel, an amateur artist, encouraged his painting aboard ship during his service. Executed with his knife, 14 x 11 on a piece of canvasboard, without his hand written notation on the verso, you would think it's the Indian River in Fort Pierce, cocoas blowing in the wind. You can see it on "h-buy-sell-trade.com" click on Backus.

August can be dry for my cash flow, as well, although at least we had the opportunity to display at a show in Ft Lauderdale. The show rewarded us with some sales, including a full size Sam Newton seascape. I sell awfully cheap in the summer to keep that cash flowing in, don't know a better way to do it. You'd think I could figure out a better way after all these years, but at least I know it brings results.

We also certified and appraised a very nice collection of 21 highwaymen paintings last week in Port St Lucie. More and more folks feel a need for insuring them, so they must have an "official" third party opinion of value, on paper with the identifying photograph. We haven't had an insurance company question a certificate yet, so they should continue to work for everyone, the giant company (insurance), the client, and the tiny company (us).